Books and Manuscripts

Boswell, James
The Life of Samuel Johnson...
London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, 1791. In two volumes. First edition, mixed state (second state of first volume; uncorrected first state text in second volume, per Pottle; all cancels present). 4to. xii, (xvi), 516; (ii), 16; (ii), 588; 17-42 pp. Bound with: The Principal Corrections and Additions to the First Edition of Mr. Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson (London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, 1793); title-page and first 16 pages bound at end of first volume, with remainder bound at end of second volume. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Johnson by J(ames). Heath after Sir Joshua Reynolds, in first volume, and two engraved plates of facsimiles by H. Shepard, in second volume. Three-quarter 19th-century brown calf over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt, boards unevenly toned, scattered wear to extremities; speckled red edges; repair in lower gutter of title-page and frontispiece; repaired closed tear in upper gutter of title-page in second volume; loss at bottom corner of pp.167/168 in second volume, with some letters supplied in ink; light to moderate foxing to text in each volume; doodle in pencil on final page below text. Pottle 79; Courtney & Nichol Smith, pp. 172-3; Grolier, 100 English, 65

A fine first edition of Boswell's landmark biography of Samuel Johnson, one of the great achievements of English letters. "So successful was it that by August twenty-second, 1200 out of the edition of 1700 copies were disposed of, and the whole edition was exhausted before the end of the year..." (Grolier, p. 151). This copy including the scarce first edition of Principal Corrections, Boswell's final publication before his death. Principal Corrections was published simultaneously with the second edition of The Life of Samuel Johnson and was intended as a supplement for owners of the first edition, providing additional material such as letters and anecdotes that were given to Boswell following the first edition's publication.